I was flaring up in rage as I read today that
B
ut replanting those trees I cannot comprehend. My stomach turns at the thought that the representative of my country is part of this immeasurable insult to justice and memory.
Insult, because those trees were planted by the state of Israel - to be precise, by the Jewish National Fund, (or KKL (read 'Kakal') from the Hebrew acronym) - atop the Palestinian villages wiped out by Jewish militias and terrorist groups before and during the 1948 war.
I first learned about those history-concealing trees reading Susan Nathan's very interesting book "The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide".
But the unmissable read on that topic is Max Blumenthal's "The Carmel Wildfire is burning all illusions in Israel" - the section titled "Redeeming the Land" expands on the strategic positioning of those forests by the JNF to erase the traces of Palestinian history by planting pine forests. Read it if you haven't yet!
For that matter, the JNF has at times - and under serious legal pressure from Israeli organizations such as Zochrot - has acknowledged that, and submitted to putting a sign marking the name of the Palestinian communities decimated. See this excellent article on one such case.
Ambassador Yasser Reda, who has been in post since September 2008 is, despite sounding like a fairly intelligent speaker, proving to be an adept of shoving his foot in his mouth, collecting silly declarations and actions of that kind.
I am deeply ashamed. To the families of Palestinians whose memory my ambassador has helped wipe out today, I offer my apologies and beg for your forgiveness.
Egyptian ambassador to Israel Yasser Reda (see photo below) joined a host of foreign ambassadors to Tel Aviv in planting trees in the Carmel, after a wildfire that burned millions of trees and killed 43 people.Now we sent assistance to extinguish the fire - quicker than we react to save Egyptians dying, but let's ignore that for now - as well as condolences for the lives lost. And that's saving human lives or trees, as well as nice and good neighbourly relations, etc: I'm all for that.
B
ut replanting those trees I cannot comprehend. My stomach turns at the thought that the representative of my country is part of this immeasurable insult to justice and memory.Insult, because those trees were planted by the state of Israel - to be precise, by the Jewish National Fund, (or KKL (read 'Kakal') from the Hebrew acronym) - atop the Palestinian villages wiped out by Jewish militias and terrorist groups before and during the 1948 war.
I first learned about those history-concealing trees reading Susan Nathan's very interesting book "The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide".
But the unmissable read on that topic is Max Blumenthal's "The Carmel Wildfire is burning all illusions in Israel" - the section titled "Redeeming the Land" expands on the strategic positioning of those forests by the JNF to erase the traces of Palestinian history by planting pine forests. Read it if you haven't yet!
For that matter, the JNF has at times - and under serious legal pressure from Israeli organizations such as Zochrot - has acknowledged that, and submitted to putting a sign marking the name of the Palestinian communities decimated. See this excellent article on one such case.
Ambassador Yasser Reda, who has been in post since September 2008 is, despite sounding like a fairly intelligent speaker, proving to be an adept of shoving his foot in his mouth, collecting silly declarations and actions of that kind.
I am deeply ashamed. To the families of Palestinians whose memory my ambassador has helped wipe out today, I offer my apologies and beg for your forgiveness.
5 comments:
Mohammad, I think there is nothing as disgraceful as the Palestinian attitude.You don't want to hear the interviews with them. When they were later invited to be honored, they were denied entry! http://goo.gl/Ojesd
What most of the people don't know that Palestine wasn't as green as it is now before 1948 , it is well known that the JNF has started this planting trees project not only as a mean to confiscate land but also as a way to hide the traces of the Palestinian villages.
When you visit a KKL forest (I believe all forests are administered and owned by KKL) you may as well read the history of the occupation of the land, I wonder if the ambassador has read something similar to this: http://i55.tinypic.com/35hil9y.jpg
Stating this probably won't change anyone's conspiracy theories here, but in fact, reforestation was started haphazardly as a way to drain swamps...and then grew as a way to hold down topsoil and create microclimates that would encourage more rainfall. The JNF (KKL) started this program in 1900 or 1901---long before there was a 1948 war, a partition, or empty Arab villages (I see no mention of emptied Jewish neighborhoods or village here....hmmmmm....). It's not only done in Israel, but in Greece, Haiti, India, and other parts of the world as a way of land and water restoration and management.
The Ottoman Empire ruthlessly chopped down trees for its own uses, and part of the tax system measured wealth by the amount of trees on certain properties---which meant having a grove was a tax liability.
Not everything is a Zionist conspiracy, much as the screaming Left you've quoted would have it so.
Khaled,
I think many people are losing hope with the Palestinian leadership whose pandering to the Israeli government is still met with a slap on the face. Sad.
Sarah,
Thanks for the details. Nevertheless, the KKL itself has recognized that it was building forests on wiped Palestinian villages. (links are the KKL Wiki page, actually).
That, and the pine forests, being not native to the land, have had destructive effects on the local flora. Hardly a environmental move.
Khaled,
I think many people are losing hope with the Palestinian leadership whose pandering to the Israeli government is still met with a slap on the face. Sad.
Sarah,
Thanks for the details. Nevertheless, the KKL itself has recognized that it was building forests on wiped Palestinian villages. (links are the KKL Wiki page, actually).
That, and the pine forests, being not native to the land, have had destructive effects on the local flora. Hardly a environmental move.
Uh, the pines are Aleppo pines....in fact, they are native to the region....although I would prefer a lot more diversity. Yes, after 1948, forests were planted on Arab villages--and there is an Israeli (Jewish) group here in Israel that goes from site to site planting markers to show the location of those former villages so no one can "forget" they were there.
Post a Comment